SPartan Equine REsearch - The SPERE Lab

05/12/2026

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Renee Harbowy for being recognized with the MSU Department of Animal Science Outstanding Graduate Student Service and Leadership Award!

Your dedication to the department, college, university, and multiple professional societies is greatly appreciated!!!

Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Michigan State University Horse Programs

05/07/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Cara Robison for being awarded the CANR Staff Dean's Award of Distinction. Dr. Robison has been working in the SPERE Lab for over a quarter of a century. She has played a major role in almost all of the research that has been done by our group since then.

The horse world is better off for all of her efforts!

Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Michigan State University Horse Programs

08/20/2025

Joint supplements are commonly given to horses in the hope they help with joint problems. But do they actually? On the Happy Horse Nutrition podcast, Nerida McGilchrist interviews Brian Nielsen and Ph.D. student Renee Harbowy about recent research completed through the SPERE Lab. (Link to Part 1 below)

Podcast Episode · Happy Horse Nutrition · 08/11/2025 · 59m

05/29/2025

Want to learn more about how to keep your horse's bones healthy?

Dr. Nerida McGilchrist interviews Dr. Brian Nielsen on the Happy Horse Nutrition podcast about this topic. Feel free to share!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DGIp7QKlwPxKBQuFjNw9A?si=hy3x5IFpSYOIoQJR5uc0nQ

Happy Horse Nutrition · Episode

02/11/2025

In tribute to Dr. Don Lay, a great animal scientist that passed on Sunday. This paper, published in the Journal of Animal Science in 2008, demonstrated the benefit of exercise on bone strength, lying behavior, and piglet survivability in stall-housed gilts (emphasizing the importance of exercise in species beyond horses). While not open access, feel free to contact Brian Nielsen if you desire a copy of the paper. Don, you will be missed greatly!

ABSTRACT. Lameness in breeding-age gilts and sows is a major cause of culling, resulting in increased economic losses and welfare concerns. This study dete

02/03/2025

Hot off the presses! A recent publication by Renee Harbowy of the SPERE Lab.

Summary: Circular exercise is a common practice in many disciplines, whether it be in the form of lunging, a mechanical walker, or ridden exercise. However, how horses adapt to circular exercise may put their bone and joint health at risk. Circular exercise was found to influence traits of bone quality, including density and fracture force. Speed and circle diameter also influenced markers of bone formation and bone resorption. It is important for one to consider factors such as speed and circle diameter in their exercise programs to help ensure the musculoskeletal health of equine athletes.

Click on the link to read the article for free!

Though circular exercise is commonly used in equestrian disciplines, it may be at the detriment of horses’ musculoskeletal system. To investigate the effects of circular exercise on bone and joint health, 42 lambs were randomly assigned to a non-exercised control, straight-line, small circle, or l...

12/17/2024

With the mineral cobalt being used to enhance performance in equine athletes, and with accompanying health issues when administered in high doses, horse owners have been concerned about cobalt in horse feeds.

Research recently published by the SPERE Lab shows that, even when fed at 60X the 2007 Horse NRC recommendations, urinary and serum cobalt concentrations were far below the threshold limits set by various regulatory agencies.

This research provides evidence that positive tests for high cobalt concentrations are not coming from the normal diet of a horse, but are occurring when individuals are deliberately dosing horses in an attempt to create an unfair advantage – likely through injectable forms.

Feel free to check out the link to read the article for free.
Ashlee LeCompte Lazić, Brian Nielsen, Cara Robison

The 2007 Horse NRC reduced cobalt (Co) requirements from 0.1 ppm to 0.05 ppm in dietary dry matter, though preliminary research suggested increasing dietary-Co enhanced fiber digestion in horses. This study aimed to evaluate fiber digestion with varying dietary Co amounts, as well as to compare seru...

05/01/2024

As we approach this Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, there will likely be some talk about stride length – with possible reference to some historically great racehorses like Secretariat or Man O’War. Such discussions lead people to believe that a long stride length is the most important thing in making a horse fast. However, the other factor influencing speed is stride rate (frequency).

A recent paper from the SPERE Lab compares the stride rate and length of Thoroughbreds and the racing American Quarter Horse revealing the importance stride frequency also plays in speed. While taking shorter strides, Quarter Horses take up to 3 strides per second, propelling them to speeds reaching around 55 miles per hour and making them the world’s fastest athlete.

Please feel free to access the paper for free below for more details.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35198858/

04/19/2024

As spring semester comes to an end, the SPERE Lab has been busy with six undergraduates presenting their research from the lab in two research forums. Their studies evaluated joint supplements, hydration/dehydration in human runners, and sheep behavior and learning. While not all the work is complete, the students gained experience in conducting research, analyzing results, and presenting their findings.

The students also got to meet with Dr. Véronique Julliand, one of the world's top equine nutrition researchers who was visiting the lab.

Special thanks to M.S. student Renee Harbowy and Dr. Cara Robison for their assistance with these projects.

Stay tuned to this page for future details on some of the studies.

02/01/2024

Research on the role of silicon in improving bone health in horses begun by Brian Nielsen while doing his graduate work at Texas A&M and continued by Abby Pritchard while doing her Ph.D. at Michigan State are just some of the studies related to dietary silicon and bone discussed in this recently published review paper by Pritchard and Nielsen. The paper, published in the journal Nutrients, can be accessed for free by clicking the link below.

https://www.mdpi.com/2650430

11/13/2023

The Spartan Equine Research Lab was represented at the World Equine Veterinary Association Congress (WEVA2023.com) in Santiago, Chile where Brian Nielsen gave three invited talks on various aspects of horse nutrition and Fernando Vergara presented some of the findings of his doctoral research.

The work was performed in response to concerns that bisphosphonates administered to horses in an attempt to help them deal with bone issues might be responsible for breakdowns. Please feel free to check out one of the papers from his dissertation published in the journal Animals last year. The paper is called “Is the use of bisphosphonates putting horses at risk? An osteoclast perspective” and can be found at the following link:

doi.org/10.3390/ani12131722